Brida Pact Read Free

being abducted by aliens than go two miles to Mega
Mart?”
    “Hellz yes, bish. That’s how I roll.”
    Both sisters loved to curse. In fact, they tended to make an
art of it and used bad language in every sentence they could. When they were
bored and drinking, they’d try to create new words just to mix it up. “Bish”
was one of those words. According to Pixie it was like calling someone a bitch
but with a little love thrown in. They used it so frequently their phones had
stopped autocorrecting it when they texted each other.
    “Hey, what’s Brian up to?” Normally Poppy could hear
background noise when talking to her sister but this call had been surprisingly
quiet. Brian was the type of guy who tended to make noise when he was simply
sitting down doing nothing, so she could tell when he wasn’t around.
    “Well, he decided to go in to the office today. Architecture
apparently waits for no man…or alien,” Pixie deadpanned then started giggling.
“He actually sat on our porch last night and stared at the ships for a bit.”
    “Ummm…why?”
    “Because he said that the curves and engine placement on
them were ‘fascinating’. I swear he’s such a goofball sometimes. He went in to
mock up some drawings apparently and left me here.”
    “Hey, is he still acting weird?” Propping her feet up on the
table, Poppy twirled a curl that had managed to escape from her bun.
    “Yeah…a little. Since we’ve been hermits this last week, he
hasn’t disappeared on me but he seems nervous about something.”
    “You mean, other than aliens?”
    “I don’t know. Before all this happened he was really
secretive about where he was. For a minute I thought he was cheating but then
Becky said she’d seen him browsing through rings downtown at a jewelry store…”
    “You mean engagement rings?” Poppy took pride in needling her
sister. Pixie was the type of person who was superstitious when it came to
anything and everything.
    “Don’t say that! You’re going to jinx it!” Pixie interrupted
quickly.
    “So, not to say he is going to propose, but if he
did, would you say yes?”
    Poppy already knew the answer even before she asked the
question. Pixie was nothing if not predictable. While Poppy had floundered with
school majors and then entering the workforce, it seemed Pixie’d planned
everything out from the time she was in high school. The next step for her
would obviously be marriage and then the two-point-five kids complete with a
white picket fence and perfectly blooming flower boxes.
    “Of course I would. We’ve been dating for two years and
living together for one. Why wouldn’t I?” By her tone, Pixie obviously had no
doubt that her life plan was a sound one.
    “Well…do you luuuuurve him?” Poppy sang obnoxiously into the
phone.
    “Yes, why would you ask that?” Pixie was starting to sound
offended at the questions.
    Poppy thought for a moment and decided to go for broke. It
wasn’t that she didn’t like Brian. He seemed like a great guy: stable job,
stable salary, stable sense of humor. That was the one thing that bothered her.
He was plain toast when she had always imagined her lovable sister with someone
who had a little more spice.
    “I like Brian. I really do.” Pausing to try to make this as
gentle as possible, she chose her words carefully. “When you’re together…you
seem different. You don’t laugh as much or crack jokes. When we are alone, we
say ‘fuck’ about a million times and laugh so hard we snort. It’s sad when my
sister seems to lose a little bit of her spunk when her boyfriend is around.”
    There, she’d said it. Now she was full-on twisting the curl
in her hand as she waited for Pixie to say something. Anything.
    “Poppy…Brian is a great guy. He’s loyal and sweet. And he
has a great job and would make a wonderful father. We aren’t getting any
younger, you know. Plus, we’ve been dating for two years.”
    “I know. I just don’t want you to settle for